Why Not Do it Again

S O U N D  W A V E S  A N D  B R U S H  S T R O K E S

Painting to music, again. This time we had paintings that were all over the map, from Western scenes, Jesus and abstract colors and shape. People really went wild.

Speak Up

S A M   M C G E E

On the second day at PRM, Shire led the men and women in a poetry workshop. It was a lot of fun to watch people read their poems and cheer others to get up and share what they have written, try as some might to hide, nearly everyone read something. There were free-writes and poems about life (literally “life”, someone suggested that be the theme for the first poem), and some poems where the only words were ones shouted out by the group and put into a word bank.

Unfortunately we have no pictures of the day, but it was poetry day so I feel like it’s appropriate.

Poems,

the Art Bus Poems

High Note

D E B U T

The first day at the Portland Rescue Mission began a completely new week for us. We were working with a very different, and much larger, group than before. We had learned a lot from the past two weeks, so we felt prepared, but nothing could have prepared us for the warm welcome and amazing conversation on the topic of “What is art” that we had with the men and women.  We were thrilled with the enthusiasm and creativity.

Here are a few recordings from the first music workshop, led by Eddie Hazera. Him and Shire collected all sorts of vents, screws, light fixtures, shutters, and garbage bins at the Rebuilding Center, for the groups to make music with. Enjoy this premium cover of “Under the Boardwalk” and the other slices of sonic play.

This one group came up with a far out cover of “Under the Boardwalk”.

A couple of the men decided to go for it with “traditional” instrumentation along with our various percussion items.

A gritty and soulful number written in less than 30 minutes! This number takes some surprising turns, so be sure to listen to the whole thing.

And here are recordings from the women’s facility known as Shepherd’s Door.

The second these women got these instruments in their hands, they were already getting up to get down. Listen to these two warmup exercises explode into a rhythmic industrial meltdown, coalesce into a heap of groove and then blast off into a beatific galaxy.

Fun fun fun.

Back to nature, back to the thunder: here is a dramatic variation on a familiar theme.

Here’s a truly avant-garde attraction. The creativity and play with the boombox and “found sounds” make this track an especially appealing number.

Wow! What a stunning melody. That’s all there is to say. Well, besides the ultra-cool percussion breakdown in the middle.

This is by far the loudest and most fun of the whole group percussion exercises. What sounds like howling monkeys in the background is actually a chair being slid backwards on the tile floor. Cool school.

So there you have it. America sure does have talent. This day left us all revved up for the next four days, but also tired and need of a break, so we headed to Powell’s bookstore, a place that would become a big presence in all of our lives for the rest of the week.

Hip to the Groove,

the Art Bus

Beach

B E T T E  M I D L E R

The weekend came and we decided it was time we make it to shore for sure. This is Cannon beach.

We had a great, relaxing time staring at the ocean staring at us.

Mother sea,

the Art Bus ship

Peace on the Street

S T R E E T  F A I R

Valerie from the Macdonald Residence has been wonderful to us, but more importantly to the place she works. She has initiated a street fair for the last Friday of our time with the Macdonald Center. These are some pictures of us at the Rebuild Center in Portland (resourceful!), set up (hot and sunny), and the fair itself (so much fun)!

That’s it for the Macdonald Center and Rosenbaum Hotel. Next is the Portland Rescue Mission.

Quite possibly,

the Bus Art club

Aztec Criminals

y o u ‘ l l  s e e

Painting to Music

T H E  G O O D  T H E  B A D  A N D  T H E  U G L Y

Today was music response painting and we think everyone really loved it. We listened to the entire soundtrack of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Check out these fantastic paintings!

We were really impressed with Mary’s progression in these three paintings. The warm toned painting on the right was her third and it looks like she really started to get a sense of how to work with the paint. She even painted it sideways but means for it to be oriented this way.

Don’t be confused by the pictures, he says that his paintings should be mounted on a rotating platform because they have no specific orientation.

Bus life,

the Art Bus singers

Notebooks

A N D  B L I N D  C O N T O U R S

Blind contours are the best. They can always be trusted in a time of need, or leaned on when you need a friend, or set free when you need a boost. We love them for their simplicity and ability to shift focus from the result to the process. Too often people struggle when they begin to judge what they are creating: we don’t want that. Blind contours give people a surprise finish and something they never imagined they could create.

The man above is nearly blind and thought he would not be able to participate in a drawing exercise. Once he learned the nature of the blind contour, he was ecstatic. His technique was to touch the dolls face and press particularly hard on the paper so he could follow what he was drawing. It was quite a technique to watch!

In line and on the line,

the Art Bus kids

Work In Progress

O N  A  R O L L

Here are a few pictures from the first week. We’ve tackled papier maché bowls, collage covers for notebooks, monochromatic paintings and blind contours. Each day is surprising. People are bringing out talents they never suspected themselves of having.

She came to the workshop with plans of making an avocado ash tray out of papier maché!

What we initially thought of as introductory projects have much more potential. Some of you might see more papier maché from us in the future.

Chewed paper,

the Art Bus gang

Debut

F I R S T  T H I N G S

Max was unable to make the kick off party Valerie organized for us at the Macdonald Residence, but Jody lead everyone in a project to make a banner for the July 9th street fair “Peace on the Street”. Lesson of the day: painting is a big hit! We hope it wasn’t just the strawberry shortcake bringing people in.

We were thrilled about the turnout, in a big part thanks to Valerie’s efforts in getting people out of their rooms and into the projects. Hopefully we will keep this enthusiasm going for the next two weeks.

Out and about,

Jax and Mody